Try Hard

Creative Work in Progress

By: Max Kerman

Narrated by: Max Kerman

INSTANT BESTSELLER!

Funny, conversational, and relatable, Try Hard is for anyone looking to make sense of their own creative pursuit or bring more creativity into their life, offering a framework for how to do it and where to begin.

Let’s say you see a familiar musician from a globe-trotting, touring band hanging out at your local coffee shop, reading the newspaper and typing away on his laptop. This doesn’t look like a musician at work. He seems approachable enough, so you ask him what exactly he does all day. With a grin on his face, he admits the job might not be what you think. So you take a seat, and ask him every question you’ve ever had about how it all works: the nuts and bolts of writing a song, preparing for a show, marketing a band, and the day-to-day business of a creative life.

With each answer—none of it about talent—you realize this musician is a bit of a…try hard. And the mystery of being a creative person isn’t actually mysterious at all: it’s just exploring ideas with an enthusiastic and determined curiosity. Over and over.

Max is that musician in the coffee shop, and this is what reading Try Hard feels like: one-of-a-kind tales from a dynamic frontman, and a companion to your own creative work in progress. With a brick-by-brick attitude, Max explores his own growth in the craft of storytelling and performance, the pleasure to be found in collaboration, and the creative spirit required in sharing your art.

Unique and engaging memoir

For a guy with a whole lot of life left he attacked the pseudo memoir in such a cool, creative and dynamic way that kept each chapter fresh.

The honesty with which Max talked about his creative process.

Loved it. As a music fan it is always great (but often hard to find) a behind the curtain accounting of all that goes into a successful entity, in this case the Arkells. Huge in Canada and soon to be in the U.S.